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# Saturday was a playoff primer for John Stark, Plymouth football
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/saturday-playoff-primer-john-stark-plymouth-football/
- Published: 2016-10-19T19:09:08.000Z
- Updated: 2016-10-19T19:09:08.000Z
- Description: The postgame message Chris Sanborn gave to his Plymouth High School football team on Saturday was as much a reminder as it was anything else. Sure, the Bobcats had just suffered their first loss of the season on a late touchdown by John Stark, but that fact could take a backseat to what both teams h
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division II, football, John Stark, Plymouth, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

The postgame message Chris Sanborn gave to his Plymouth High School football team on Saturday was as much a reminder as it was anything else.

Sure, the Bobcats had just suffered their first loss of the season on a late touchdown by John Stark, but that fact could take a backseat to what both teams had just experienced.

"This is why we play," Sanborn said. "I hate losing and I know my boys hate losing, but you've got to play these games. Do you want to win by 40 or do you want to play this? I'll take this every day."

It was the closest game of the season for both sides, as John Stark had won its first six games by an average of 34.2 points and Plymouth had done the same by more than four touchdowns.

This game wasn't just for potentially one of the top two seeds in Division II; it was to measure just how good each team is. Plymouth had a 14-0 edge in the first half, but John Stark came back to take the lead three times in the second half.

"It was awesome," John Stark quarterback Drew McQuarrie said. "It's unlike anything we've had this season. We haven't really had a tough schedule. They came out and hit us in the mouth early. We were ready for them all week, and as ready as we were, they still came out and gave us a punch in the mouth."

The Bobcats did more than just that, as their first two drives went for a combined 30 plays and 117 yards, taking up 13:39 of the first half. On the opening drive, Plymouth converted three third downs and scored on another, and on the second, the Bobcats converted two fourth downs and another third.

"When that starts happening, and they're marching the ball down the field, right away, it's the guys upstairs and me and coach (Mike) Hamilton on the sidelines," John Stark coach Rod McQuarrie, Drew's father, said. "It's adjustment time. What can we do? We made one and it didn't work great. We made another one. Mike Hamilton was a superstar (Saturday). He didn't have a second where he wasn’t trying to make something happen."

While Plymouth showed how methodical its offense could be, John Stark displayed how explosive it can be. After the Bobcats took a 21-7 lead with 12 seconds left in the first half, the Generals found a way to get down field.

McQuarrie found Leif Mailloux for a 47-yard gain to the Plymouth 13-yard line and Mailloux got out of bounds with one second left on the clock. The Generals took advantage, as McQuarrie found Cooper Gorski for a touchdown to end the half.

"I was rolling to my left and I hit Leif Mailloux on a long seam route on the left side," Drew McQuarrie said. "I didn't know if he was going to try to stay in and score, or get out of bounds, but we had one second on the clock. Cooper broke out in the back of the end zone and I found him."

And on the first play of the second half, John Stark did it again, as McQuarrie hit Gorski for a 57-yard touchdown.

"They scored right off the bat in the second half and that was a real dagger," Sanborn said. "We controlled the ball a lot in the first half and they shut us down in the second half. We had to do some things differently."

Both teams will face tough tests in the final two weeks of the regular season, as John Stark hosts Bow (6-1) on Saturday and finishes at Hanover (7-0). Plymouth also plays its final home game on Saturday against Lebanon (4-3) and then heads to Milford (5-2).

"That is a game that makes you battle tested and we needed that," Rod McQuarrie said.